Our workplaces are becoming more and more saturated with things to steal our attention. It can be a sobering experience to look back on our day and see how little time we actually spent working on things that mattered. When we’re working to our full potential, we can sometimes achieve a state of “flow,” or a mental state when we’re so focused in our work that everything else fades away. (You might call it the “The Zone” or a “groove.”) Unfortunately, it’s becoming harder to get into these mental states when we’re constantly bombarded by distractions.

Here are some of the best ways to firewall our attention and ensure that we don’t finish the day completing a fraction of what we set out to do.

1. Figure out where your time is being spent
2. Keep email closed
3. Make heavy use of email filters
4. Define your “Big Rocks”
5. Don’t check email in the morning
6. “Do Not Disturb” time

That’s a bold claim. Why do I think this? Because it’s already happening, and has been happening (albeit more slowly than recently) for the past decade.

Like any progressive movement, it takes pioneers to blaze the way for the rest of us. Companies like Ben and Jerry’s, White Dog cafe have been hacking through the red tape, wagging fingers and sideways glances for years. In the process, they’ve proven that social mindedness and business are not mutually exclusive endeavors and a pack of wide eyed entrepreneurs are stampeding down the now highly respected path.

On the backs of these heroes of the social world entrepreneurs can now make their case (not to mention that they have all sorts of advantages our forefathers lacked like social enterprise business programs, networks, incubators and a blessing from the government).

Now there are many arguments that social entrepreneurship is praised more highly than intrapraneurship etc. I agree that both are crucial and, in fact, symbiotic (the work of innovators would never attain access to larger operations if not for enlightened people on the inside and those driving innovation there).

But there are some unique aspects to social entrepreneurs that make them the catalyst. One being that they have the least path to resistance to try new models and methods of doing things (no corporate red tape when you’re working out of coffee shop on your world-changing idea). But maybe the most important part, they are out to save the world, which means they won’t take no for an answer and want to move fast and big. This makes them susceptible to the greatest rule for entrepreneurship, “fail often, fail fast”. Social entrepreneurs are the test bed for what will succeed or fail in a business atmosphere. They also show us where huge market exists, often by going against all odds to prove opportunity where it’s been overlooked for ease of profit.

Can they change the whole business infrastructure themselves? Probably not, but they push the frontiers of what we know as possible which is extremely important and starts a cycle of demand (better business is possible, which leads us to demand better business). This then opens the door for their real potential of proving feasibility and and the integration of their practices into larger scale operations where it makes sense.

We envision her “beating” Eryka Badu, Björk, Kelis, Angelina Jolie, and Lucy Lui’s faces in the near future. And eventually, Tim Burton will holler at her. In the meantime, we get to watch her slowly, intentionally take over the world of face art.

“Risha Rox is revamping the most enduring of artistic subjects, the human visage. With edgy concept & color, she brings new meaning to ‘fresh faced’!”

It is important that the Fastgirls understand the resource we have in this community. This week, as we know, Syreeta was honored by Glamour Magazine and got to dress up in fancy threads to represent the dreams of all of us Dreamers. Our youngest Fastgirl was named one of the Top 20 Under 25!

She reached out to Sallomé (one of her many mentors), for advice on how to use this honor to propel her in her lane. In October she told Syreeta: “Yes, you’ve gotta use this award. Definitely let your school know about it. Tell everyone! They’ll take you more seriously because Glamour does.” So when her school, CUNY, asked where they could get details about the award and she hadn’t received PR materials from Glamour, she asked Sallomé for some help.

The e-mail she crafted and sent to Syreeta read:

SUNY BA STUDENT IS HONORED BY GLAMOUR MAGAZINE

Syreeta Gates (Class of ’12) was honored this Monday at Carnegie Hall as part of the Glamour Magazine 2010 Women of the Year Gala. Chelsea Clinton took the stage to introduce Gates as one of the Top 20 Women Under 25 for her work as Founder of The SWT Life – an organization committed to supporting young innovators through entrepreneurial coaching, personal development, and exposure to industry leaders. Gates was in good company, being honored alongside the likes of Donatella Versace and Julia Roberts. When asked what was the best part of the evening, she exclaimed,”Oprah Winfrey winked at me!”

Gates will continue making a mark, as she gears up for the publishing of her upcoming book Just BE Cause and continues the planning for a city-wide summit for teens in 2011 to aid them in exploring passions, distinguishing strengths, and articulating purpose.

From our conversation on November 7th, Fastgirls came up with the following insights in how to lead a great workshop or seminar. Feel free to add via comments.

• Being engaged or in action on site
• Something tangible to take away (White Pages, resource page, product)
• Skill(set) learned
• Requesting that connections are made
• Encouraging someone stepping out of their comfort zone for behavioral workshops/seminars
• Make material relevant and ability to shift gears if not
• Tone that is set to make participants feel free and comfortable
• Facilitator is prepared and delivery is dynamic
• Storytelling or anecdotes that are relevant to the subject matter and develops trust
• Games that engage participants
• Facilitator qualifies themselves early in workshop/seminar
• Facilitator displays their humanity beyond the information being shared; authenticity (humor, truth-telling)
• Gracefully redirect misguided/off-topic conversation
• Visual displays to help participants retain information
• Awareness of your verbal tics; being transparent if managing a topic or question you don’t have an answer for
• Have a number of cultural anecdotes, etc to address multiple audiences
• Look your best; don’t allow your appearance to distract from your leading
• Offering references, facts, statistics

Feast Talks: Kenna and Compassionate Capitalism is available on AllDayBuffet.org (Aug 2010).

Kenna is a Grammy nominated recording artist with an amazing talent and a huge heart. At the 2009 Feast Conference he shared his biographical background as well as his influences and passions.

After learning that his father contracted a water-borne illness at a very young age, Kenna was able to become more directly connected with causes he had previously supported. Thankful for “compassionate capitalism,” the artist teamed up with corporations and other groups to further his goal of providing clean water for people around the world.

Watch his engaging talk HERE to learn some interesting facts about Kenna. Find out why he refused to be put on the bill when touring with No Doubt, his engagements with world famous author Malcolm Gladwell, and his thanks to his anonymous Wikipedia updaters.